Political Conflict in Madagascar Before the Presidential Election

The opposition parties in Madagascar are outraged because they feel there was a "power grab" before the upcoming presidential election. They claim that Christian Ntsay became president of the nation as a result of President Andry Rajoelina and his friends manipulating the judicial system. They claim that this was done to support Rajoelina and influence the November election.

On November 9, the people of Madagascar will vote for a new president. Rajoelina, who is 49 years old, resigned so that he may seek for reelection as required by law.

When Rajoelina step down the Senate President was supposed to take over, but he said he couldn't for personal reasons. As a result, Christian Ntsay was selected to lead a "group government."

Although there were attempts to consider Rajoelina's candidacy unconstitutional due to the fact that he has dual French and American citizenship, the decision was upheld by the nation's highest court. The opposition was outraged by this.

According to the letter, the Senate President's resignation is not addressed in the Constitution. The Constitutional Court's Chief Justice said that allegations of prejudice were unjustified.

The Senate President-designate resigned. Florent Rakotoarisoa claimed they couldn't force him to assume leadership but that it was done to ensure that things ran properly in the nation.

On Saturday, the court rejected three opposition parties' requests to have Rajoelina's name removed out of the list of candidates because they said the procedures had been followed improperly. Rajoelina obtained French citizenship in 2014, according to news reports from June, which may result in him losing his citizenship for Madagascar and prohibiting him from serving as president or standing for election.

Rajoelina's party said that this wasn't true. Rajoelina launched his campaign a week earlier with a major ceremony in the stadium of the capital city, even before the decision of the court.

The former president, Marc Ravalomanana, who is also running for president in November, was overthrown in a coup in 2009. After refusing to run in 2013 in due to criticism from the international community, Rajoelina returned to power in 2018.

The head of Auguste Paraina's presidential campaign, Eleonore Johasy, said that the Constitutional Court made judgements at unusual times in an attempt to silence opposition. She added that because of all these fabrications and behaviors, people are losing faith in the government.